Movable horizontal tail for catapult toy glider

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a horizontal tail of a catapult launched glider which can change angles during flight. An horizontal tail which can change angles means that the horizontal tail is movable, a movable horizontal tail is achieved by sandwich a slow rebound means between the horizontal tail and the fuselage, the slow rebound means could be a memory foam or a compressible plastic telescopic tube, their properties is delayed restitution when the pressure acting thereon disappears, so the horizontal tail on top of the slow rebound foam is boosted and maintained at a negative angle with the longitudinal axis of the fuselage when there is no pressure acting on it, the compressible slow rebound means allows the horizontal tail be pressed downward from negative angle to zero angle or even to positive angle when squeeze the tail portion of the glider by fingers before launch, the horizontal tail is maintained at zero angle or positive angle at that time, after launch, the horizontal tail moves towards negative angle with a slow speed which is controlled by the expansion rate of the slow rebound means, the glider travels in the sky with a nearly straight upward climb first, then go down with a smooth gliding and landing as the horizontal tail has been propped up by the slow rebound means. Another play mode is by griping the sides of the fuselage without touching the horizontal tail, the glider will fly in circles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention generally relates to a horizontal flight control device of a catapult toy glider, more particularly, the invention relates to a lightweight design be installed on existing toy glider to make horizontal tail can move further to allow the toy glider to climb as high as possible and then glide down gently.

2. Description of the Related Art

Fly to high altitude and glide down slowly is people's desire about a glider. Because catapult launch with very fast initial speed, launch toward the sky are the benefits attached to the catapult launch for onlookers and bystanders. In order to make the glider fly high, some use folding wings to reduce launch resistance, some use movable horizontal tail to control the flight locus, both approaches obtained the goal of vertical rise fly.

The existing inventions use folding wings mechanism such as disclosed in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 2,078,374A (John Drobniewsky), Arrow glider. U.S. Pat. No. 2,128,747A (Johnson Tool & Engineering Inc), Toy glider. U.S. Pat. No. 2,268,487A (Jacobs James M H), Toy airplane. U.S. Pat. No. 2,538,522A (Jackle Erwin K), Toy glider. U.S. Pat. No. 3,222,817A (Edward Brandstetter), Toy automatic wing folding catapult plane. U.S. Pat. No. 3,369,319A (David A. Brown), Toy glider with automatic wing converging means. U.S. Pat. No. 3,839,818A (Heggedal E), Glider with automatically releasing foldable wings. U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,736A (Off The Ground Models, Inc.), Folding wing glider. U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,413A (Schwarz Charles F), Bird shaped toy glider. U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,664A (Erik Bakker), Toy glider with wing converging mechanism. U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,706A (Chase; George W.), Toy aircraft glider with rotating and folding wings.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,077,359B2 (Uncle Milton Industries), Pneumatically launched folding wing glider toy.

The existing inventions use movable horizontal tail mechanism such as disclosed in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 2,597,521A (Pemberton J C), toy glider; U.S. Pat. No. 2,820,322A (White Frank H), Toy airplane glider;

U.S. Pat. No. 2,876,585A (Frank Zaic), Flying devices; U.S. Pat. No. 3,091,889 A (Frank Zaic), Flying devices; U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,675A (Stripling Jr Sheldon A), Automatic horizontal tail control for model glider.

There are so many devices and mechanisms successfully make toy glider fly higher as we have seen from above existing inventions, as we know heavier aircraft cannot fly higher, the maximum height that the glider can reach is depend on its total weight when under the same launch force, the existing mechanism installed for folding wings normally have relatively heavy structures for folding and opening the wings, thus the total weight increase a lot and affect flight performance inevitably. When we make a movable elevator by installing a mechanism on the tail which is a smaller and simple structure than folding wing's structure, however the center of gravity is changed easily because we add weight far from the center of gravity of the toy glider, therefore we have to put some weight ahead of its wings for rebalance, thus the total weight increase is not just the weight of the mechanism for the movable elevator only, the weight added in the front also count, maybe twice the weight increased.

The U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,805A (Tsai; Tzu-Jan J), Toy glider with adjustable flying path. Published in Jan. 24, 1995, is the my previous design, its movable horizontal tail is a self-biasing horizontal tail resiliently attached to a rear bottom portion of a fuselage by a restoring member, the problems are: (1) We have to press the front edge of the movable horizontal tail to make it keep horizontal under the fuselage before launch, its rear edge will shaft and change the horizontal status, that is because the horizontal tail will shake on the soft restoring member. (2) When flatten the horizontal tail in its front edge, tailgers must extend to the front from tail end, it is not comfortable for fingers to grasp, especially for children. Our improvement is arranging a slow restoring member on top of the fuselage, then we can squeeze the rear edge of the movable horizontal tail, it is much easier for children to hold before launch, besides, the present invention will make the movable horizontal tail tilt in a steady way via the connecting to its fixed wings, use the fixed wings as a hinge to make the movable horizontal tail swing up and down only.

So when designing a toy glider with the approach by movable horizontal tail, my goal is to build a lightweight, stable, functional and easy to operate one but not sacrifice the original flight performance of a toy glider.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

For vertical climb and slowly glide flight, The fact is the vertical climb travels the first several seconds, then the rest flying time is for downwards glide. To get the vertical climb is to make the horizontal tail parallel to the fuselage axis as much as possible; the later gliding angle of the movable horizontal tail is a very small negative angle relative to the fuselage axis, if the negative gliding angle is too big, the toy glider will stall when gliding, so the angle change of the movable horizontal tail is a very small quantities, changes between small negative angle to horizontal angle. My design is to control the horizontal tail angle change by time schedule and make it only a small angle change between negative angle and near parallel angle relative to the fuselage axis, more clearly, for vertical catapult launch, we only need to make the horizontal tail to stay in nearly zero angle right before launch, release the toy glider for straight up fly for the first several seconds and then make the horizontal tail maintaining at a negative angles relative to the fuselage axis for the rest downward gliding condition.

To obtain above mentioned flight requirements, a slow rebound means is a choice to meet these demands and which is something that will slowly restore after flattened, examples are slow rebound foam, Plastic telescopic tube, rubber squeeze bulb, etc. Here we use slow rebound foam or we call it memory foam as the description name used for slow rebound means. The memory foam has two properties: (1) compressible and slow rebound, (2) sufficiently large restoring force, when it is pressed down, it will take several seconds form flattened state recover to its original unstressed state, we pick the right recovery time to match the catapult launch time schedule, that is, the compressible property allows the horizontal tail to be flattened close to zero angle relative to the fuselage axis within the first few seconds after launch, after that, the memory foam restore with a slow speed but sufficiently large restoring force to prop up the horizontal tail with negative angle relative to fuselage axis for slowly glide condition.

Our basic structure of toy glider has wings and horizontal tail integrated into one single piece of flight control surfaces and sticks it to the top surface of a fuselage, one or more vertical tail fixed on the top surface of the flight control surfaces. As we know with fixed horizontal tail cannot fly both straight line and circle locus in a catapult launch, so it is necessary to have a movable horizontal tail for straight line up and circular down flight. For making the fixed horizontal tail can move, place a wedge shaped memory foam in between the horizontal tail and the fuselage at the back end of the glider so that the horizontal tail is propped up by the memory foam and with negative angle to the wings, that is, its front edge is lower than the rear edge by front view, besides, the horizontal tail can move due to the compressibility of the memory foam. More important, the fixed front wings which on the fuselage works as a hinge for the horizontal tail and allows the horizontal tail tilt up and down stably. Before catapult launch, squeeze the back end of the glider by fingers, thus the horizontal tail is flattened and with zero angle to the fuselage, then launch the glider, it can fly as high as possible for seconds until the horizontal tail restore to its original negative angle by the expansion of the memory foam, then the glider starts to glide in a gentle way. During the catapult launch, the movable horizontal tail has changed from near-zero angles to negative angle by squeezing it and by let it go.

To enable the aircraft to fly higher, a further improvement is to let the horizontal tail to move not just start from near-zero angle to negative angle, but start from positive angle to negative angle. Although keep the positive angle for the horizontal tail will make toy glider a nose down arc locus when fly, but if we launch it vertically toward the sky or over ninety degree, the toy glider will still fly toward the sky with a nose down arc locus, when the horizontal tail moves to zero angle, the toy glider will fly straight up, when the angle reaches its maximum negative angle setting, the toy glider will fly toward the sky with a nose up arc locus, the procedure means the climbing time has increased so can make toy glider fly higher with S-shaped climbing locus.

For making the movable horizontal tail move from positive angle to negative angle, just cut off a wedge block at the back end upper surface of a straight fuselage, an inclined surface is formed on the tail end of the fuselage then, stick a wedge shaped memory foam which is larger than the wedge block be cut from the fuselage on the inclined surface, use the same method to assemble the rest parts of the toy glider and let the horizontal tail maintain at negative angle relative to the fuselage when finished. Now a movable horizontal tail can moves from positive angle to negative angle by squeeze it and by let it go.

The other benefit of the angle change from positive angle to negative angle relative to the angle change from zero angle to negative angle is that for a very small negative angle setting of a toy glider, the former has more space for more slow rebound foam material being stuffed, so the material will not be compressed to its limit therefore to reduce the fatigue of the materials. On the contrary, the latter can only stuff less slow rebound foam material to a very small wedge gap and will be fattened at every launch, the material may fatigue and cause weakening of restoring force.

Use memory foam can easily achieve the function of movable horizontal tail; moreover, it is so light that will cause minimal burden to any toy glider. Furthermore, the glider can also make a circle flight back to its launch point by just grab sides of the fuselage instead of squeeze the movable horizontal tail when launch, with the movable horizontal tail maintained at negative angle position, provides the user another game play.

Besides, by squeezing the memory foam for longer or shorter time, press deeper or shallower, which can change the rebounding time of the angle change of the movable horizontal tail, thus we can control the maximum height reached of each launch, and we can launch it horizontal, sideway or vertical to produce different flight radius for fun.

The structure of the movable horizontal tail is at the back end portion of the glider, completed with memory foam squeezed into the wedge gap of the fuselage and the flight control surfaces, the flight control surfaces which including wings and horizontal tail. The shape of the flight control surfaces is not limited, that is, we can design various shapes of gliders, as long as the gliders' center of gravity are well balanced, we can then put a piece of memory foam inside the wedge gap between the fuselage and the horizontal control surfaces, to produce a glider that can fly high and glide down slowly.

It is an advantage of the present invention to provide a toy glider fly to higher altitude and then gliding down.

Another advantage of the invention is arranging slow rebound foam to make existing toy glider's horizontal tail movable is very easy, as long as the upper surface of the fuselage is flat.

Another advantage of the invention is the movable horizontal tail works stably because control of angle change of the movable horizontal tail is only by the restoring property of slow rebound means and nothing to do with spring, launching speed, air resistance or gravity.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a toy glider with a movable horizontal tail showing the relative positions of the components in its preferred embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a lateral view of the preferred embodiment of the horizontal tail held in a horizontal position which will make a straight fly.

FIG. 3 is a lateral view of the preferred embodiment of the horizontal tail held in a back-end lifting position which will make a circular fly.

FIG. 4 is a lateral view of the preferred embodiment of a slow rebound material is installed in between the fuselage and the flight control surfaces for making a movable horizontal tail.

FIG. 5 is a lateral view of the preferred embodiment of a toy glider with a movable horizontal tail on it.

FIG. 6 is a lateral view of the preferred embodiment of showing the grasp method with thumb below the fuselage for catapult launch, the movable horizontal tail is flattened at this time.

FIG. 7 is a lateral view of the preferred embodiment of showing the grasp method with thumb above the horizontal control surface for catapult launch, the movable horizontal tail is flattened at this time.

FIG. 8 is a lateral view of the preferred embodiment of the toy glider having movable horizontal tail which can operate between negative angle and zero angle according the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a side elevation view showing the flight trajectory of vertical climb and then glides down of a toy glider projected from the catapult.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a delta wings' toy glider with a movable horizontal tail showing the relative positions of the components in its preferred embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a canard wings' toy glider with a movable horizontal tail showing the relative positions of the components in its preferred embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a T-shaped tail toy glider with a movable horizontal tail showing the relative positions of the components in its preferred embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a lateral view of the preferred embodiment of the T-shaped tail toy glider having movable horizontal tail can operate from back-end lifting position to horizontal position according the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a lateral view of the preferred embodiment of the toy glider having a movable horizontal tail which can operate between negative angle and positive angle according the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a side elevation view showing the flight trajectory of a toy glider controlled by the horizontal tail which moves from positive to negative angle so to create S-locus upward climb and then glides down gently by catapult launch.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

To build a movable horizontal tail glider, we starting from assembling basic aircraft components (see FIG. 1), a piece of flight control surfaces 2 which contains wings 21 and horizontal tail 22 mounted on an unbent fuselage 1 in the upper surface of the unbent fuselage 1 in rear end alignment, a set of vertical tail 23 are fixed on the rear of the flight control surfaces 2, a canopy 4 is fixed on the front end of the flight control surfaces 2 for balance, a catapult hook 11 is installed in the front bottom of the fuselage 1, The assembled glider as seen in FIG. 1 with horizontal tail 22 flat to the front wings 21 will fly a straight line when the center of gravity of the glider is balanced. When use a rear end up tilted fuselage 1 for the same assembly steps as above, as seen in FIG. 2, the horizontal tail 22 is upturned at negative angle relative to the wings 21, and the glider will travel a circular path all the time.

For a glider fly high and then circling glide down, the flight path is the combination of the above two flying mode, we need a horizontal tail 22 which is able to move form flat condition (see FIG. 2) to upturned condition (see FIG. 3) by placing and sticking a memory foam 3 in between the horizontal tail 22 and the fuselage 1 at the back end of the glider (see FIG. 4), the horizontal tail 22 is upturned by the memory foam 3 all the time (see FIG. 5), when squeezed by tailgers, the horizontal tail 22 is flattened (see two grasp methods in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7), the glider is ready for vertical catapult launch. When launched, the horizontal tail 22 takes a few seconds to recover from horizontal to tilted position (see FIG. 8), before the horizontal tail 22 fully recovered to upturned position, the glider has flown high already, the tilted position is suitable for following glide. The whole vertical climb up and circling glide down flight path is shown in FIG. 9.

The shapes of the flight control surfaces 2 are unlimited, could be delta wings 21 as seen in FIG. 10 or canard wings 21 as seen in FIG. 11. The vertical tail 23 could be installed anywhere on the top of the flight control surfaces 2 and will not hinder the installation of the memory foam 3.

Another example is a traditional T-shaped tail glider with horizontal tail 22 mounted on a single vertical tail 23 as shown is FIG. 12, here the flight control surfaces 2 is narrowed in width after the wings 21 and extends rearward to the tail end of the fuselage 1, meanwhile the horizontal tail 22 is separated from it and moves to the top of the vertical tail 23, with the same method as previously described, by squeezing the memory foam 3 at the rear end of the glider, the vertical tail 23 is down with the flight control surfaces 2, so the horizontal tail 22 is driven from tilted position to horizontal position and ready for a vertical launch as shown in FIG. 13.

The other embodiment is setting a horizontal tail 22 which can move between positive angle to negative angle as shown in FIG. 14 for higher fly. First, cut off a wedge block with wanted inclined angle at the back end upper surface of a fuselage 1, be sure not to make the inclined angle too big, otherwise the glider will nose dive to the ground right after launch. Stick a wedge shaped memory foam 3 on the cut place, make sure the wedge shaped memory foam 3 is large enough to prop up the horizontal tail 22 to a negative angle position, so the horizontal tail 22 can moves from positive angle to negative angle by squeeze it and by let it go and creates a S-locus upward climb of the glider to reach a higher sky.

REFERENCE NUMERALS AND DESIGNATIONS

-   1. fuselage -   11. catapult hook -   2. flight control surfaces -   21. wings -   22. horizontal tail -   23. vertical tail -   3. memory foam -   4. canopy 

What is claimed is:
 1. A catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail is characterized by a slow rebound means which is sandwiched between a horizontal tail and back-end of a fuselage.
 2. A catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail as described in claim 1 wherein said horizontal tail is defined as rear portion of a horizontal control surfaces, said horizontal control surfaces is the integration of the wings and horizontal tail or front elevator, the order is not limited to its front and rear, that is, said main wing could arranged in the last, said main wing and said horizontal tail can also be integrated become one, such as a delta wing, that's why I call it as a horizontal control surfaces.
 3. A catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail as described in claim 1 wherein said slow rebound means is a slow rebound foam or a compressible plastic telescopic tube or the like, their commonness is that when under pressure is compressed and when pressure is released will slowly regain their original shapes.
 4. A catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail as described in claim 1 wherein said slow rebound means is to elevate the back-end of said horizontal control surfaces, more specific, to elevate said movable horizontal tail maintain at negative angle position relative to said fuselage's longitudinal axis, its compressible properties makes said movable horizontal tail thereon be able to be squeezed downwards from negative angle; its slow rebound properties makes said movable horizontal tail thereon be able to restore to its original negative angle position slowly after pressure is released.
 5. A catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail as described in claim 1 wherein the angle range of said movable horizontal, tail is set between negative angle and horizontal angle relative to the fuselage axis for simple vertical flight or set between negative angle and positive angle relative to the fuselage axis for S-shaped meandering climb to a higher altitudes, the angle change between positive angle and negative angle setting makes said slow rebound means take a longer time to regain its original shape than the angle change between horizontal angle and negative angle setting does, so it can get more time for upward climb to a higher position.
 6. A catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail as described in claim 5 wherein a straight fuselage with flat upper surface together with slow rebound foam mounted on its back-end will be able to make a movable horizontal tail thereon with angle range move between negative angle and horizontal angle through your fingers to press it and release it.
 7. A catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail as described in claim 5 wherein a wedge-shaped block be cut away from the back-end upper surface of said straight fuselage and form a inclined plane, bonding said slow rebound foam on said inclined plane, with dimensions big enough to elevate said horizontal tail thereon to reach negative angle to said fuselage axis, this approach will make said movable horizontal tail thereon move from negative angle to positive angle when be squeezed with fingers, an when pressure is released, said movable horizontal tail will move from positive angle to negative angle again.
 8. A T-tail catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail is characterized by sandwich slow rebound foam between back-end of a horizontal control surfaces and back-end of a fuselage to make the back-end of said horizontal control surfaces be elevated with a negative angle relative to the longitudinal axis of said fuselage.
 9. A T-tail catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail as described in claim 8, comprising: A fuselage with a launch hook at the front bottom, a slow rebound foam which is fixed on the back-end of the upper surface of said fuselage, a horizontal control surfaces sticking to the upper surface of said fuselage and said slow rebound foam, all of said three aligned at the back-end of said toy glider, a vertical tail is fixed on the rear portion of said horizontal control surfaces, a horizontal tail is mounted on said vertical tail.
 10. A T-tail catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail as described in claim 9 wherein said horizontal control surfaces is long and narrow in shape and is close to but shorter than the length of said fuselage, a pair of wings extends laterally and outwardly from the middle portion which is firmly fixed on said fuselage.
 11. A T-tail catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail as described in claim 9 wherein said slow rebound foam when flattened, said horizontal control surfaces will drive down said vertical tail in the same time so to link said horizontal tail moves from negative angle towards horizontal angle or even more down to positive angle.
 12. A T-tail catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail as described in claim 11 wherein the angle range changes from negative angle to horizontal angle is achieved by putting a slow rebound foam on the upper surface of the back-end of a straight fuselage, in which the upper surface of said straight fuselage is complete flat from head to end, so can make said movable horizontal tail move from negative angle to horizontal angle when squeezed with fingers, when pressure is released after launch, said movable horizontal tail will move from horizontal angle back to negative angle automatically and allow said glider fly to a high position then follows a gentle gliding.
 13. A T-tail catapult launched toy glider with a movable horizontal tail as described in claim 11 wherein the angle range changes from negative angle to positive angle is achieved by: first, cut a wedge shaped block at the back-end top corner of a straight fuselage to make an inclined upper surface at the back-end of said straight fuselage, then bonding a slow rebound foam on the inclined upper surface, the dimensions of said slow rebound foam must be bigger and higher than said wedge shaped block which is cut from said straight fuselage, so it is high enough to elevate said movable horizontal tail thereon to reach a negative angle with said fuselage axis, so to be able to make said movable horizontal tail thereon move from negative angle to positive angle when squeezed with fingers, and when the pressure is released, said movable horizontal tail thereon will move from positive angle to negative angle automatically so that increase the upward flying time for a higher fly. 